ArtsQuest adding festivals, overhauling Banana Factory

The Bethlehem arts nonprofit organization that revitalized the former Bethlehem Steel site into a music and entertainment complex has big plans brewing for 2017.

The Bethlehem arts nonprofit organization that revitalized the former Bethlehem Steel site into a music and entertainment complex, which brings an estimated $115 million a year to the local economy, has big plans brewing for 2017.

ArtsQuest is developing a major plan this year to overhaul the almost two-decade-old Banana Factory, while adding new festival programming for fine-arts and performing-arts lovers.

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ArtsQuest President and CEO Kassie Hilgert said the nonprofit is working with a new Strategic Plan that spans 2017-19. ArtsQuest will study making major changes at the Banana Factory, the fine arts hub that is home to artists in residence, galleries, a hot glass studio and children's theater classes. Officials seek to develop plans this year and begin work next year at the Banana Factory, which turns 20 in 2018.

ArtsQuest President and CEO Kassie Hilgert is pictured near the former blast furnaces at Bethlehem’s SteelStacks. (HARRY FISHER/THE MORNING CALL)

"We're re-imagining Banana Factory becoming a much more modern visual arts and cultural center, and meeting the needs of a growing community," Hilgert said. "We want to be careful and grow in a sustainable way."

Hilgert said while the organization strategically focuses on visual arts, performing arts and festivals as their own genres, programmers also are working to meld the three.

The event will be April 28-29 at various venues across the South Side. There will be six official venues — such as Godfrey Daniels, Touchstone Theatre, Holy Infancy School, the National Museum of Industrial History — and six unofficial venues that offer complimentary programming, such as The Bookstore Speakeasy.

The event will bring together arts workshops and artisan pop-up shops. Fusion rockers Rusted Root will headline the event at Musikfest Cafe.

"SouthSide Arts and Music Festival will be our big new initiative in 2017," said Patrick Brogan, chief programming officer and manager of the ArtsQuest Center. "We're taking an arts-based fest at Banana Factory and expanding it across the South Side."

The event will feature 25 artists over two nights, plus multiple visual artists with residencies at the Banana Factory featured in a street-fair setting.

"We want to get people all around the South Side to see what we see every day, which is a burgeoning arts community," Hilgert said. "We want to get the arts out there in front of music."

Musikfest, ArtsQuest's monumental showpiece and its founding production, also will see a few changes this year. Hilgert said officials plan to tweak the offerings of the 10-day festival that stages hundreds of musical performances. The event comprises 16 stages now, 14 of which charge no admission. Hilgert would like to book more big acts that draw a crowd and place them in some of the smaller, free venues.

Millions of guests have attended the festival since its founding in 1984.

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The organization has broadened its reach and impact since opening SteelStacks at the former Bethlehem Steel site in April 2011.

In 2013, Hilgert said, ArtsQuest offered 1,500 concerts, classes and programs, and in 2016, that number reached 2,500. The nonprofit serves roughly 1.7 million people each year, with a estimated annual economic impact of $115 million.

The event has long presented acts of national renown and helped launch careers.

Slingshot Dakota, Craig Thatcher and Manuel Garcia have roots at Musikfest and are performing at the acclaimed South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, this year, Hilgert said.

Brogan also has been invited to serve on a panel at the festival to discuss connecting community through music.

New in 2017, ArtsQuest will partner with Touchstone Theatre and Zoellner Arts Center to roll out a Circus Arts Fest in July, featuring international touring circus acts and developing acts from the region. The event will be geared for all ages, Brogan said.

"We look at a lot of different places to find entertainment to bring to our community," Brogan said.

Toronto's BuskerFest is providing inspiration this year. Brogan scouts talent from fests throughout North America, such as Bonnaroo, Coachella, Firefly and others.

Also in the works is the SteelStacks Grand Prix, a Le Mans-style street race that will use go-carts from Lehigh Valley Grand Prix in Allentown. The event will take drivers through the streets of the SteelStacks campus past old Steel buildings.

Christmas lovers will be excited to hear that Christkindlmarkt is adding a sixth weekend this year and doubling the number of tents.

"The frenetic pace our staff and volunteers keep up is mind-numbing, but that's how we like it," Hilgert said.